Microwave safe containers, including microwave safe containers with lids, are well known in the art. Traditionally, a microwave safe container (e.g., glass, plastic) has a single-piece microwave safe lid that seals the container. While such containers and lids according to the prior art provide a number of advantages, they nevertheless have certain limitations. For example, to vent the container, a user must unsnap a portion of the lid from the cooking container, risking scalded fingers from escaping steam or burned fingers from touching the heated container. As another example, to vent the container during cooking, either the lid is placed loosely askew on the container, creating a risk that the lid will fall off when removing the container from the microwave, or the lid is skipped altogether and potentially creating a messy microwave as a result. Further, a traditional microwave container with a lid does not allow for steaming food items without the food items being in contact with the steaming liquid. The present invention seeks to overcome certain of these limitations and other drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide new features not heretofore available. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.